


The Burden of Knowledge

by DarkLux



Category: Naruto, Naruto manga
Genre: Gen, Self-Discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:59:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1957599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkLux/pseuds/DarkLux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kakashi looked at their backs and wondered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Burden of Knowledge

**The Burden of Knowledge**

Kakashi wonders if this is how Sakura felt when she was only twelve. If this is how Rin felt, despite the constant remainders she gave her team that she was an important member of the group.

Kakashi stares at Obito’s back. The skin is pale, even for an Uchiha, and the muscle on the right side is torn tissue that is not quite an scar, yet works as a reminder of all those years he stood in front of the memorial stone, trying to come to peace with the fact his teammate was dead.

The memorial stone is gone, he remembers. Gone along with the whole village and all the people who were not pulled to a safe haven before it was attacked and utterly destroyed by the person he missed the most. And he finds it strange, strange in an empty sort of way, that the memorial is gone because so is the thought that Obito was still buried under that rock, lost in an old battlefield of trees and stone.

He knows the village is gone. That all the things he ever fought for have been for nothing the second this war and the Shinobi Alliance started, because if these people were not his enemies, he served no purpose other than a common, lowly guard against mercenaries and thieves. A killer of people who had always been capable of understanding each other but refused to do so.

He knows the memories he and his fellow villagers hold of Konoha is the only thing they have now. That, and utter desperation. A raw, unadulterated need to win despite the loss and the feeling of imminent end looming over their heads.

Everyone here has lost someone. No one here has much to return to, if they do manage to win.

He ponders, for just a second, if living in a fantasy world would really be so bad.

But yet he stays silent, he keeps fighting, pitching in ideas and moving with those nimble movements he’s sure he’s too exhausted to keep doing, but his body won’t stop. An involuntary, animalistic instinct of survival will not let him give up. He would have to live a little longer. He would have to hurt a little more.

He knows all of this. And yet, when he stares at Obito’s back, soon joined by almighty Sakura and cheeky, tiny Naruto who has been growing up to be taller than him, he simply can’t help but feel depressed that he is being left behind.

Kakashi knew. His father had told him his natural abilities would be surpassed by hard work. By dreamers who kept going no matter what the world threw their way. He knows it now anyway. And he should have known back then. Because now he’s one of those people, his body won’t let him stop and his mind screams at him when he considers giving in.

But it’s too late.

He’s tall. And he’s strong. And he’s smart. But he’s not what the shinobi world needs. He can’t do much more than to watch from the sidelines.

He looks at the disappearing backs of his teammate and students, and he promises to himself, like he should have done long ago, that he would not be left behind again.


End file.
